Autumn's Eye Checkup

This past week Autumn had her 6 week checkup for her eyes. I was really dreading this appointment... I hadn't been great about making Autumn wear her glasses what with the heat, swimming and the fact she had already scratched them once this summer playing outside. I went into the appointment prepared to be reamed by the Doctor. Of course it was pouring down rain the morning of our appointment. Brody had been gassy and fussy for a few days so he screamed the entire way to the hospital. I thought my day was just doomed!

When we got to the doctor's office, we checked in and met with a new nurse. I'd never seen her before, but she was young and great with kids. I mean, GREAT. Autumn is always shy around new people that she doesn't know, but she took to Julie really quickly. Since the nurse was so friendly and good with kids Autumn was a lot more comfortable and trusting. She did all the things she wouldn't remotely do at her initial appointment - putting her chin on the machine and looking into the small hole, naming the pictures on the screen, sat all by herself in the examination chair, etc. Julie just got her talking and talking. When we finished the initial screening, Julie took her hand and led us back out to the waiting room and the toys. Well, Autumn didn't want to let her go. Julie had to sneak away!

Autumn did just as great with the doctor. She sat in the chair all by herself, let the doctor do his thing and followed all of his instructions perfectly. I was so proud of her! I just kept giving her tons of positive reinforcement. It's amazing how different this exam was from her first one and what a difference a few months makes in her maturity.

The doctor didn't ream me either. It was a win-win; Autumn was great and I wasn't presented with the Worst Mother of the Year Award. Unfortunately he was disappointed that we hadn't made any progress with her patching, so he says that I have to do "the drops". Essentially I put drops in her good eye every few days (they last a little over a day). The drops blur the vision in her good eye, forcing her weaker eye to work harder and eventually improve it's vision. She won't like the drops and they'll probably frustrate her (and in the end me) but I'd rather she not lose sight in her eye which is a possibility.

We also rescheduled Autumn's surgery for the first of the year. We realized it was smarter financially for us to max out her deductible at the start of the year instead of 2-3 months before it would reset. I'm still really nervous about it all but I know it's for the best. The doctor really wants her eye sight to improve (hence his insistence we use the drops since patching isn't working) before the surgery so it is more successful, so this also gives us more time.

The three of us left the appointment really happy - it was so much better than expected! I was so proud of Autumn that we went right to the store to pick out a reward. Right now she loves My Little Pony so I told her we could pick something out. She decided on the My Little Pony train set and was so excited. The best part? As I put it on the conveyer belt and was paying for it, all on her own she kept saying, "Thank you Momma! Thank you Momma." I love my sweet little girl!